Carolyn Lane Swett Russell Dolbear, 81, of Round Pond, passed away on Aug. 14.
Born at Knickerbocker Hospital, New York City, on Nov. 22, 1933, Carolyn’s birthday was always easy to remember: 11/22/33. Her loving adoptive parents, Ubert Harold Swett and Sadie H. Hyman, spent summers with Carolyn in Bar Mills at the family house before moving to Round Pond in 1940 from Englewood and Maywood, N.J.
After graduating from Lincoln Academy in 1951, Carolyn married Peter Arnold Russell in March of 1952. In 1960, Carolyn and Peter moved to Round Pond permanently where they started their family, which grew and grew and grew to six children.
Carolyn cultivated wonderful gardens, flower beds as well as vegetable gardens, putting up vegetables that the family ate year-round: pickles and beans, relishes and jams. Somehow in raising her six children, she kept up Carolane Acres, for which the house and buildings and land were named after her, painting inside and out, landscaping, and collecting antiques and preserving heirlooms that meant so much to her.
A lover of old houses, too, on monthly trips to Portland for orthodontist appointments for her children and travels about the midcoast, she played the game, “Which house is your favorite?” Exclaiming over the old farmhouses and lands, she passed on her appreciation of antiquity and olden days. In later years, she researched family and local Round Pond history and genealogy, creating notebooks of the family that her children treasure.
Carolyn was the kind of mother who pushed her children out doors to play independently; she fostered their inner creativity; she taught them to work.
She was a committed progressive and often lamented about current conservative viewpoints, but, at the same time, she endeavored to be and succeeded in being the most accepting person in the world (but not of our politicians!).
Carolyn Lane Swett Russell Dolbear is predeceased by her husband, Peter A. Russell; her parents; and her son’s life partner, Claudia Ropes.
She is survived by children, Liza Russell of Cornville, Lynn Russell Kalloch, Adam Lee Russell, and Hannah Russell Laday of Round Pond, Amanda Russell of Edgecomb, and Joshua Arnold Russell of Damariscotta; and grandchildren, Carolyn Lane Kalloch, Luke Johnson Kalloch, Jubal Russell Ashlen Horton, Issac Yates Russell, Thomas Joseph Abello, and Peter Andrew Abello; great-grandchildren, Hazel Jamison Abello, Hannah Jane Abello and Charlotte Anne Abello; also of most importance, daughters- and sons-in-law, George Laday, Andy Abello, Skip Sorrento, Andrea Vassallo, and Buzz Ropes; as well as cousins dearest, Sally Poppalardo and dearest Boblyn White.
A celebration of Carolyn’s life will be held in the fall at the Elliot Cemetery in Round Pond.
